COLOMBO, Nov 5: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, giving herself more powers in a bare-knuckled political fight with the prime minister that is threatening the peace with Tamil rebels.

The state of emergency, a draconian law that allows detention for up to one year without charges, comes a day after the president sacked three of the country’s most powerful ministers and suspended parliament.

But a presidential adviser said Kumaratunga would not end the 20-month truce with the Tamil Tigers, who seek a separate homeland for minority Tamils, despite her disagreement with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe over the peace process.

“I am authorized by the president to tell you that the ceasefire agreement stands and will stand. There is no question about that,” Lakshman Kadirgamar told reporters.

The president, who is elected separately from Wickremesinghe, sacked the defence, interior and media ministers on Tuesday and suspended parliament, raising questions about the future of the government and the direction of the peace bid.

That shock move was followed on Wednesday by the imposition of the state of emergency, which widens the powers of the president and military and includes bans on public assembly.

“It has been gazetted,” military spokesman Col Sumedha Perera told Reuters when asked about the state of emergency.

All these actions are being taken in Wickremesinghe’s absence — he is in the United States to meet President George W. Bush. He has called the moves by Kumaratunga desperate and said they could lead to chaos and anarchy.

The developments also come just days after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) released a proposal on power-sharing that the government said were a basis for fresh talks.

Kumaratunga’s party sharply criticised the proposals, but Kadirgamar said it was the president’s belief that the security situation was deteriorating that led to her actions.

WEAPONS SHIP: He said a suspected LTTE ship carrying weapons had been spotted offshore last month and “brought to a head concerns about how the security situation is being handled”.—Reuters